Thursday, June 3, 2010

Ideas for Fresh Derren Brown Material

This past week, Derren Brown's most recent series ("Derren Brown Investigates") ended. Derren was good as usual, but the main idea of the series -- exposing fake psychics -- was not new territory for him.

So I started thinking about fresh new ideas for Derren Brown shows. Here are my top choices:

1. Derren's Big Challenge. Here, Derren is dropped off in an unfamiliar city (e.g., Fresno, California) with no ID and no money. He has to make his way to a distant city (e.g., New York City) by a specific deadline (e.g., ten days), using his hypnotist/magician/etc. skills. This would generate a lot of publicity, give DB opportunities to demonstrate many different skills, and potentially be quite entertaining.

2. Reality TV. Derren could become a contestant on an American reality TV show that requires contestants to outwit each other (Survivor would be best). This option would (a) put DB in a setting where no one knows who he is and (b) introduce him to millions of potential new fans. Plus, I think he could use his persuasion techniques to win the show.

3. Ask Derren Brown. In this concept, viewers and fans submit requests to DB, to see if he can fulfill them. For example, someone might write in, "Make my brother-in-law stop smoking." Then DB would travel to the person's town and use his skills to accomplish the task. While this might be less glamorous than his usual celebrity-laden shows, I think it would make the audience feel more connected to him.

Do you have other (better) ideas? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.